Review : Always Watching by Chevy Stevens
Always Watching by Chevy Stevens
Pages : 352
Genre : Mystery, Psychological Thriller
Stand Alone My Rating : 3,5/5
From the back of the book :
When a distraught woman, Heather Simeon, is brought into the Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit after a suicide attempt, Nadine gently coaxes her story out of her—and learns of some troubling parallels with her own life. Digging deeper, Nadine is forced to confront her traumatic childhood, and the damage that began when she and her brother were brought by their mother to a remote commune on Vancouver Island. What happened to Nadine? Why was their family destroyed? And why does the name Aaron Quinn, the group’s leader, bring complex feelings of terror to Nadine even today?
And then, the unthinkable happens, and Nadine realizes that danger is closer to home than she ever imagined. She has no choice but to face what terrifies her the most…and fight back.
My Thoughts :
Always Watching was my first novel by Chevy Stevens, and I have to say that I went in with huge expectations. Ever since her first novel Still Missing, I have seen her books being recommended again and again on a variety of blogs. For someone like me who loves a good thriller, she was an author I simply knew I had to read in the close future. When the opportunity to read Always Watching was given to me I immediately jumped on it!
While I wouldn’t say I was disappointed by the book, it is true that I had expected something a little more gripping. Did I come in with too high expectations, or was it simply not on the level of the author’s previous books? Not having read her previous novels (which I intend to do!), I couldn’t say. But overall, while I really appreciated both the story and the author’s writing, I didn’t find the story to be as compelling as I expected it to be.
Fortunately, I really liked Nadine. I loved that she was a mature character and with lots of life experience; while young twenty-somethings make perfect, naive victims, it was refreshing to have a strong woman lead the story. She had a great inner strength, and I admired her desire to face her past to get to the truth. It would have been easy to not put herself in the way of danger and just move on, but despite her fears and the people around her telling her to let go, she still pushed and pushed right through to the end. She was brave and selfless, intelligent in her decisions and loving when needed. Don’t be fooled by my description though, as she was also far from perfect. Selfless yet selfish at times (a matter of opinions, some would say) and stupidly stubborn, she was a complex character I appreciated.
Nadine’s past added a lot to her character and helped understanding the relationship she had with her daughter. I liked how she rediscovered lost memories and brought us back into our past. It was dark and uncomfortable for sure, but I felt the author created a commune that was realistic. It wasn’t hard to imagine Nadine’s mother being enchanted by the place and its leaders.
The story itself was very intriguing, though a little predictable. The author hinted a little too heavily at the clues, which took away from the guessing game that comes with reading thrillers. I also was disappointed with the romance aspect; while I understood it was some sort of indication of Nadine moving on and starting a new chapter of her life, I also felt it could have been part of the epilogue without taking much away from the story. As for the conclusion, I felt it was very “movie-like” and didn’t have as much thought as the body of the book, but it was still satisfying.
All in all, I enjoyed reading Always Watching. Even though I wasn’t completely enamored with it, I could see what had compelled so many other readers in Chevy Stevens’ work. Always Watching is a great mystery, but it also has a lot of depth and human complexity, which I feel maked it a perfect pick if you want a mystery that gives you a little more to think about.
Always Watching is available for sale now! Thanks to St. Martin’s Press for generously providing a copy of the book for this review!
I thought this would be a real page turner too. I will have to temper my expectations for this author’s work.
I’m always up for giving a psychological thriller a shot. Although it might not be perfect (and let’s be real, there aren’t a whole lot of perfect books!), this does sound interesting and intriguing. I think I might want to give it a shot.